From Kenya to Somalia

After two weeks in northeastern Kenya, I was getting more used to seeing emaciated animals and carcasses on the side of the road. The goats were skinny the donkeys' ribs were showing. The people were tall and very thin. The children were tall and thin, but smiling. As we finished up doing verification of the beneficiaries in a town called Qoqar (to ensure we were targeting the most vulnerable people in the village), I snapped some pictures of the children there. They always ran from the camera at first, until I showed them their pictures. Then they loved them and they wanted me to take more.

Mercy Corps is doing cash programming in these villages to ensure that families are able to access food immediately and support the local economy at the same time. I explained a little more about this is one of the blogs on the Mercy Corps website. http://www.mercycorps.org/jillmorehead/blog/25910. After two weeks in the northeastern county of Wajir, I flew to our program in northern Somalia to work with our staff from two different field offices on cash programming there.

It was a totally different scene. The UN flight I was on touched down on a gravel airstrip a few kilometers outside of town. As we got closer to town and the car rolled down the paved streets, past the concrete houses, I noticed how fat and healthy the goats looked. Goats wander the streets in this town like stray dogs in other parts of the world looking for food among the discarded items on the side of the road. Their udders seem to be full and producing milk, something I didn’t see much in northeastern Kenya. My third day in northern Somalia it rained. It wasn’t a downpour or anything, but still. In Wajir, the sky got all gray and stormy looking and then….nothing. Here, the sky got dark and gray and rain wet down the dusty side streets and provided puddles for children to play in and goats to drink from. It watered the pretty trees and flowering bushes outside our office. It was a welcome site for the people here, but I couldn’t help thinking about how nice it would be for Wajir to get a little rain, even just a smattering like this. The good thing is that the meteorologist is predicting that the shorts rains will actually come in October, so…fingers crossed.

So twelve staff have come together from two different offices to sit with me to learn about cash programming and discuss the challenges they are having in the programming they are already doing. We talked about the schedule/agenda for the training on Friday and Saturday…boom…I was giving the training. Normally, I like to make them a little more lively and interesting, but I’m afraid this was a lot of info to get across in a short period of time, so they’re stuck listening to me drone on all day long. J Luckily, they seem interested. See! I can be interesting!! They look to get a little bored now and then, so I make them play Simon Says, sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and make them do other games I’ve collected from trainings over the years. They’re pretty good sports.

The situation in south central Somalia is not so rosy. That is the agricultural center of the country and the drought has had a severe effect on the food production. People are literally starving and are migrating hundreds of kilometers on foot to try to get to some place where help is available. To compound it, there is now an outbreak of cholera in the camps and hospital in Mogadishu. The situation in the southern part of the country is dire and tragic. Mercy Corps is working in Mogadishu in the camps, which are 70% women and children to try to provide some relief. It is difficult because of the security situation, but the staff are amazing and seemingly fearless. I'm holding out hope.

I had to go to the market in Kenya and get appropriate dresses for Somalia (because I don’t really do skirts, so I didn’t have any with me). I got three made, which was fun. Basically, they had reams and reams of material and I just picked the ones I liked and they folded them in half and sewed up the sides (and cut out a hole for my head, of course). Then I bought the shawl to go over my head and cover up my arms. This is my favorite of the three I had made. The other two have lavender, but I like the blue. And…it’s super comfy!! Well, I had a hard time wearing the shawl correctly and keeping it on my head, but the dress is way, way comfy. Kind of like what I got to wear in Pakistan. Feels like jammies….best work clothes ever. Did I mention it’s super hot here? So the breeze through the thin fabric was great. I turned into Sweaty McSweaterson here. Whew!

So we’ll finish up the training tomorrow and I’ll leave the materials and their certificates for them Wednesday, then I’m heading home. I’ll be in DC a whole 22 hours before heading out again. Portland….here I come (first time ever), then on to Phoenix to visit family for three weeks! Can’t wait! Everybody…cross your fingers that there are no disasters and I have to miss my Phoenix trip. :)

Till next time…..

New Blog on MC website

Check it out...two of my work blogs are featured on the Mercy Corps website. www.mercycorps.org, just scroll down to where it says "What's new in the Mercy Corps World" or go to http://www.mercycorps.org/jillmorehead/blog/25910.

FYI - I'm also writing blogs for the Mercy Corps website. The most recent is at http://www.mercycorps.org/jillmorehead/blog/25839. Here are some photos of our work and response out here. Right now we're providing water trucking and before I leave, we'll have a plan for rolling out cash grants so that people can access food and also support the local economy. It rained several of the days I was in Nairobi. Here, in the northeast, big, gray clouds, but no rain.

On the Road Again....

After one week in DC, I flew to Nairobi, Kenya via Zurich. It was my first time in Zurich and I didn't get to leave the airport...well, maybe on the way home. I arrived in Kenya the evening of Aug 23 and was surprised to find the air fairly cool. Apparently, Nairobi is a little elevated (I haven't looked up the exact height), so it keeps the weather very beautiful. You can find more information about Kenya at (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ke.html) and more about Mercy Corps programs and our emergency response there at www.mercycorps.org. I headed to the hotel and then spent Wednesday in meetings. Not much getting out and checking out Nairobi. : ( But, I have another training there from Sept 5-9, so I hope to be able to get around and see more then. Aug 25, I packed up and checked out of the hotel. After a super brief visit to the MC office, I headed out with one of our drivers, Peter, to drive east towards Garissa (map is on the first page of the CIA World Factbook website). I was a little shocked to see how green and beautiful Kenya and the surrounding areas were. I got a little hungry as we drove by a pineapple plantation (yummmmmy!). But I paid attention as it slowly turned more into a scene like the US southwest. The difference in the landscape between central Kenya and northeastern Kenya were clear! After spending the night in Garissa, one of our drivers from Wajir (reference the map) picked me up to drive the rest of the way to northeastern Kenya. I felt a little guilty as I enjoyed a mini-safari on the way to our office where we are responding to the Horn of Africa drought. I saw probably a dozen giraffe, but didn't think to pull out my camera until afterward...figures. : ) But I made sure to catch the dik dik (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dik-dik), gazelle, ostrich and warthog on camera! I even got the maribu stork. Hope you enjoy the pictures! When my deployment is over, I'm hoping to have a few extra days in Nairobi to enjoy the wildlife opportunities nearby there. If I do, I'll be sure to post more pictures later.


I'll be in Kenya until mid/late Sept supporting our office in setting up our cash programming in order to support people in eastern Kenya to purchase food for their families. Currently, in Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Kenya there are about 12.5 million people affected by the drought and animals that are dying everyday, which is devastating for the people as many of them are pastoralists raising goats, sheep, cattle and camels for income, meat and milk. Our staff have talked to many families who's situations have been getting worse and worse over the last two years. Some have lost children, most have lost someone. Mercy Corps is currently trucking water to vulnerable villages both for families and for the livestock (to try to make sure there is still a livelihoods asset if the rains come). But we are about to start some cash programming. The really frustrating part is that there is food in the stores and markets and available for purchase. But because of the decline in livestock and the rising food prices globally, people can no longer afford to purchase food and they're having to walk farther and farther to find water for the animals. Hopefully, we can help relieve some of the current suffering, but also help find longer-term sustainable programs to reduce vulnerability to disasters like this in the future. I'm looking forward to getting into the field! More to come...

From Libya to Scotland

Ok, well, I haven't updated my blog since April, but as most of you know that's because I was in Libya from April to July to support the start up of our emergency programs there. I posted some blogs to the Mercy Corps website from there, so I didn't post them here. But if you missed them, you can find them at http://www.mercycorps.org/supporters/jillmorehead. So after Libya, I was in DC for about a week and a half before leaving for Scotland. In Scotland, I got to stay in Glasgow and attend a two week training entitled Making Markets Work for the Poor and it is about a sustainable way of effecting change to make markets function more effectively for our beneficiaries, either through advocacy, access to credit or whatever is needed. Our European HQ office is based in Ediburgh, so the first week of August I worked from there and got to meet a bunch of colleagues there, which was great! Edinburgh is amazing. So beautiful! Then I took a long-coming vacation the second week of August to trek around Scotland. It was really fun. I was able to go to a Scotch distillery called Glengoyne. Wasn't really a fan before I went, but now I can appreciate a good scotch. I also went to a bunch of castles...let's see....Dumbarton (on the river Clyde), Sterling, Holyrood House (palace, not castle), and Edinburgh...not to mention the other palaces and castles that we saw from the lake and the road. Supposedly, during the month I was there, there was one of the best weather days since they started recording the weather and one of the wettest. The Thursday before I left Scotland, they received more rain in that day than they usually get in the entire month of August. I, of course, visited the Scottish highlands and Loch Ness as well. No sight of Nessie. We stopped by mountains called the Three Sisters where the British Army was called to carry out the massacre of the MacDonald clan. They were really beautiful and one car had a message to make sure that people are motivated to Save the Earth. I think if this isn't the best reason to become an environmentalist, I don't know what is. ; ) Ok. There was also a Scottish bagpiper there which our tourist guide says was terrible, but I couldn't tell. I liked it anyway. Ok, the last thing I have to say about Scotland (which is awesome, by the way, even with all the rain), is that they have the cutest cows I've ever seen. The Highland Cow used to be black and they are starting to breed more of the black ones now, but when the Queen said that she wanted to see Highland Cows that were a golden browny color, they made sure to breed the cows to her liking. Personally, I just love their shaggy hair! Sooo cute!! After Scotland...one week in DC and then off to northeastern Kenya for famine response and another training....stay tuned....

Living in DC

Spring is in the air...well, it was yesterday...maybe next week? Someday when Mother Nature makes up her mind between 70 degree weather one day and then a week of 30 degree weather. We've definitely had the rain of spring over the last week. So, as most of you know, I moved to DC last year, but haven't gotten to spend tons of time here since then. Although, I've now been here for six weeks straight after returning from giving that training in Tajikistan. Have I mentioned how much I love DC? I have? Oh well, I'm going to tell you another 3 or 4 times!! So, I actually live in Northern Virginia, not in DC proper, which people living in the District are happy to point out. But I love where I live. It is a cute area and there are TONS of dogs here! Woo hoo! The only downside? It's not within walking distance of the DC subway (called Metro). But there is a bus that stops right in front of my apartment and I love taking it to work because it's like a little tour of DC each time we go. Come with me on my bus ride.

First, we pass the US Air Force Memorial on our way to the Pentagon. Sometimes I get off at the Pentagon and take the subway, if it's raining or I'm running late. After the Pentagon, we go over past Arlington Cemetery where JFK and the unknown soldier are buried. After Arlington, we head across Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial and down to the Washington Monument, where I get off to begin my walk to the office. I cross Constitution Avenue, pass the Organization of American States, wave to the Obamas in the White House and walk past the Old Executive Building toward my office. The entire commute, bus and walk takes about an hour, but thankfully we don’t start until 9. So I get to sleep in, get a tour of the nation’s capital and still make it to work on time.

You know it’s spring in DC when the Cherry Blossoms bloom and tons of tourists start pouring in for the Cherry Blossom Festival. I got my bum out of bed this morning and drove with my neighbor to park in front of the Smithsonian American History Museum. Then we walked past the Ellipse and White House down to the Washington Monument where we met up with 15 other people and went on the 5K Chit Chat Run. We ran down to the WW2 memorial, then we stopped and got a little “chat” about the memorial and WW2. Then we jogged over to the Vietnam Memorial and stopped for another short “chat”. Then, past the Lincoln Memorial to the Korean War Memorial and around the corner to the WW1 memorial. There is a new Martin Luther King Jr. monument being built across the street from the WW1 rotunda. Then we jogged around the tidal basin under the very pretty Japanese Cherry Blossom trees to the FDR memorial where we had another little “chat”. Over to the Jefferson Memorial in the Tidal Basin and then…it was over. But, wait….we had to get back to the car. So we followed a few people in the group back over to the Washington Monument to head home.

Ok, so it wasn’t crazy easy, like I thought it would be and I did actually have to walk a few times, which was pretty embarrassing, considering the National Park Service ranger who was leading us was in his 60s and was kicking my arse! However, after a total of 7K (which sounds way more impressive than 4 miles), I was feeling pretty good and ready for a cupcake. Good thing the bakery doesn’t put them out till 11am.

Well, just wanted to share. Enjoy the pics! My neighbor and I took them all on Saturday. Lots of Love, Jill

Return from Tajikistan

So, I got back from Tajikistan on Tuesday, Feb 15^th. It was a LONG trip home (especially with an 11 hour delay in Tajikistan and an unplanned overnight in Istanbul, Turkey), which made me really happy to sleep in my own bed. And, luckily, my flight got back in the afternoon, so I went to bed at 7pm, slept till 7am and kicked jet lag’s butt. No jet leg. Woo hoo!

I had a great time in Tajikistan. The capital was neat and had lots of good restaurants and cafes. Because there was so much to do for the training, I didn’t get a lot of time to do sightseeing, but we had fun. We had a big dinner to kick off the week and to get to know each other. It was mostly our Tajikistan staff, but four members from our Afghanistan team came over as well and also one of the local NGO partners in Tajikistan joined. He was an expert in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and actually ended up giving a large part of our DRR session, which was pretty cool.

The Mercy Corps staff there was amazing! They had incredible capacity and such great attitudes and work ethic and were very interested in the training. I have to give them a lot of credit because even after five days of training, they were just as enthusiastic and engaged, which is always nice to see when you’re the trainer. Of course, giving them chocolate throughout the week doesn’t hurt. (wink) I gave my part of the training, which didn’t go as well as I had hoped, but also wasn’t as bad as I feared, so that’s good. As I said earlier, I still have a lot to learn about Early Recovery in Emergencies which is supposed to be my “expertise” and it showed during the training. One of the participants asked me a question and I had no idea what the answer was and wasn’t quick enough on my feet to think of something. So I had to look it up in the book and then give a half-assed answer. Oops!! (blushing from embarassment) But they were interested and engaged and wanted more time, so that’s always nice. Then on Friday, I gave another more in-depth session just to the program staff that went very well.

On Saturday, we did a big emergency simulation and I got to try on my acting skills (they’re not very good). I played a military checkpoint and I delayed two teams access to their “beneficiaries”. I also played a store owner willing to sell (and price gouge) the teams as they tried to buy items to help their beneficiaries. It was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to doing it again. In late March, we have two more of these trainings coming up, one in Indonesia and one in Myanmar (formerly Burma). I’m hoping that I will get to go to these trainings as well, since I’ve never been to either country. Yay!

The weather was not so great that week. It was beautiful the day we arrived, but the following day it rained until midday when it switched over to snow, then it snowed for three days and then rained for the rest of the week. The next time I saw sun….the day we left and that was only because our flight was delayed for 11 hours. Get this….the flight was delayed for 11 hours due to “weather conditions” in Dushanbe. The one day in 10 days that the sky was blue and clear and the sun was out and shining brightly. Was the weather condition that the weather was too good? You tell me. No idea. : ) Silly airline! Anyway, the day before we left (as it poured down rain all day), we went on a guided hike outside of Dushanbe. Well, let me clarify…in Dushanbe it was raining, 30 minutes outside of Dushanbe where we were hiking in the mountains, it was snowing (about 6-7inches on the ground). When they said “hike”, I heard “walk up a gentle slope”. Since I was not planning to go on a hike when I packed for Tajikistan, I showed up to the hike in jeans, a sweater, ankle socks, and my $9 slip-on tennis shoes from Payless. Did I mention no umbrella? The rest of the group was all geared up in waterproof, insulated North Face coats and pants and wearing water proof hiking shoes. They even had extendable hiking poles, neck warmers, umbrellas, waterproof backpack covers, etc. That was my first clue…I was thinking I should have said that I wouldn’t go on the hike at that point, but I didn’t want to seem like a wimp. How dumb am I?? Very!

So….we drive up and I’m watching the snow come down and down and down (did I mention I had a whole in one of my cheap, cheap sneakers? We get out of the van in about 4 inches of snow. My feet are cold before we even start walking. One of the guys lends me some super techy socks, which helped a lot. Then another guy gave me an extendable hiking pole because he was worried about my crappy shoes! (pause for embarrassment…again). Then we start hiking. I was doing okay, except that underneath the (about 6 inches by this time) snow, there is a little bit of water, which then turns the snow to very wet slush. Mostly, I’m able to avoid the slushy parts. About 45 minutes in though…there’s about 100 yards of 6-inch slushiness. First my shoes get soaked, then both pairs of socks, then my jeans up to the knees. After another 15 minutes of hiking my feet are freezing! Now, I hated to be a whiner, but I was like “OK…and….I’m done. Thanks so much for the hike. See you guys down at the van!” It was like walking around on the Titanic after it started to sink. An hour later when I got down to the van (which had driven farther down the mountain due to the snow), my frozen feet were numb and I was a little cranky (wink). My two colleagues came with me. I crawled into the van, stripped to bare feet, put my brand new gloves I got for Christmas (thanks, Lauren!!) on my frozen feet (I like my toes and want to keep them!) and slept for the next hour and a half while waiting for the rest of the group. Next time they say….”Hey…want to go for a hike?” I will know better and say….”Heck, no!”

Anywho. That’s it in a nutshell. Enjoy the pics!! If you are wondering more about the org where I work, you can check it out (and the Tajikistan, Pakistan and Iraq programs) at www.mercycorps.org. I think you can even make donations there. (wink, wink) : )

Love, Jill

Tajikistan 101

I’m sorry that I haven’t been keeping up my blog recently. Just to get you up to speed….I left Iraq in July 2010. I loved being in Iraq, enjoyed my work there (as challenging as it could be) and really miss the staff in Baghdad!! However, being all cooped up in the office was taking it’s toll and it was time to leave. I got a new job with the same organization, Mercy Corps, and am now the Early Recovery Program Manager on the Global Emergency Operations (GEO) team. What that means is that in an emergency where Mercy Corps is going to respond, I am one of four people that the organization could send in to sort of lead the emergency team in response (sounds more impressive than it really feels on the ground). But my “specialty” (in which I have a LOT to learn) is Early Recovery…meaning economic or market recovery in an emergency. I was supposed to begin this new position on Oct 1^st out of the DC office, but I got a phone call mid-Sept saying that I was needed immediately in Pakistan to assist with the start up of our Cash-for-Work program there.

So I flew to DC (where I live now) on Sept 21^st and on the 23^rd I boarded a plane for Islamabad, Pakistan. Later that week I was headed down to our Sukkur office in southern Pakistan where the worst of the flooding took place over the summer. My five week deployment turned into three months, so it was a very good induction into GEO. The basic tenets are deployment can be with as little as 72hours notices and can last one week to three months and I did both. I really, really enjoyed Pakistan. The people were incredibly polite and sweet. The beneficiaries worked incredibly hard and even though the context was crazy complicated, I think we were getting good work done and making an immediate impact (albeit short-term impact) on the lives of those people. They used the money we paid them to repair community infrastructure (like roads, schools and irrigation canals) to purchase food, clothing and medicine for their families.

In February, I am headed to the former soviet republic of Tajikistan for two weeks to provide parts of a one-week emergency preparedness training there. Tajikistan used to be part of the USSR. Tajikistan shares a southern border with Afghanistan and a western border with Uzbekistan in central Asia. The northern border is shared with Kyrgyzstan and China in the east. It is pretty mountainous, apparently. I have to be honest here. I had heard of Tajikistan, but didn’t know anything about the country or where it was located. Some good resources to find additional information if you are interested are these below links:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ti.html

http://www.mercycorps.org/countries/tajikistan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajikistan

Tajikistan (Tah jeek ih stan) gained independence in 1991 only to devolve into civil war from 1992-1997. Since then, it has remained relatively calm. It is a landlocked, mountainous country of about 7.5million people. Of these, less than 4% are over the age of 65 and the life expectancy is right around 65 years old (ranking 165 out of 224 countries). In comparison, the US ranks 49 out of 224 with an average life expectancy of 78 years. The language is Tajik, but Russian is also spoken widely. 90% of the population is Muslim and the literacy rate is over 99% (same as the US). The major natural disasters that occur with some frequency are earthquakes and floods. Mercy Corps estimates that in many parts of the country the unemployment rate is around 40%, compared to less than 10% in the US, and consequently, nearly approximately 60% of the population lives in poverty. The average annual income in Tajikistan is US$1,800. Could you imagine living on $150/month? This is half of my monthly salary when I was in Peace Corps 10 years ago.

I was very surprised when I was looking up all of these statistics about Tajikistan. To put this in perspective, Nicaragua is usually considered the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (only behind Haiti). These stats that I’ve written for Tajikistan remind me of similar statistics for Nicaragua 10 years ago when I was there during Peace Corps. In fact, out of curiosity I check Nicaragua today against Tajikistan and Nicaragua has a lower unemployment rate, a higher average annual income and a much lower poverty rate (48% instead of 60%). The most shocking of all of this is that even with such a grave situation in Tajikistan, funding in the country for NGOs to address these humanitarian needs is ending or shifting to contractors. Sometimes this work is depressing. Until the situation gets dire enough to get it into a big deal on the news or Tajikistan become strategically important politically, funding is unlikely to recover for these humanitarian programs. : (

But my understanding is that our staff there are very hard workers and very eager to learn, so I am excited to head over there for this training. Plus, this is a new country for me. I’ve never been to Tajikistan. I will try to remember to take lots of pictures (and hopefully update my blog more regularly). This is the 35^th country I’ve been to. Woo hoo!